A portrait and letters from Prvt. John Sowden, Co. K, 1st Massachusetts Cavalry. Items include; 

1. Sixth plate hand-gitl tintype full-length standing portrait. Half leatherette case. 

A fine soldier portrait of Sowden. He stands in uniform, the trim, buttons, and cavalry insignia all delicately hand-gilt. He stares directly at the photographer's lens proudly brandishing his cavalry saber. 

2. Archive of 9 letters, majority written by Sowden to his mother, 1864-1866. A complete list is below.

John Sowden was a 23-year-old engineer when he enlisted on 10 December 1863 as a private, mustering into Company K of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry on the 29th. He joined a hard-fought regiment that had participated in the fiercest battles of the Eastern Theater. More bloodshed was to come as he joined at the start of the Overland Campaign. They fought at the Battles of the Wilderness, Todd's Tavern, Cold Harbor, Trevillian Station, and Ream's Station. 

The letter archive begins early in his enlistment and includes two letters from when Sowden and the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry were making their way through Virginia. 

On 22 August 1864, he writes home: "We had some very heavy Cannoning yesterday it was up in the [Shenandoah] valley about thirty miles from here General Sheridan is up there some place with a large force I expect it must be him...We may think ourselves well off to have such a soft [job] although we are liable to be attacked any day or night and at the same time."

Shortly after, the regiment fought at the Battle of Ream's Station on their approach to Petersburg. Sowden recounts the battle in a letter from 3 September 1864: “I have seen one pretty hard fight since going my regiment we had it hand to hand with them but [they] had three to our one so we had to fall back and [they] had six cannons playing on us, where we only had one on them. [They] had six officers killed and we did not lose a one...we lost about 15 of our boys in that our Regiment was fighting about 12 [hours]."

In the same letter, he speculates (quite accurately) about the forecast of the war and his own experience: "I think we will all be home by next June if not before and we think all the fighting will be done this fall. I hope so for I have seen enough of it but if I get home all right I don’t think I shall be sorry I came for I can say I have seen a good deal and learnt a good deal."

An excellent soldier's portrait and archive. 

Letters included: 

1. ALS by Sowden to mother. "Hedcouters Camp Meegs" [Headquarters Camp Meigs,  Massachusetts], 24 January 1864. 2 pages, 8vo.

2. ALS by Sowden to mother. Washington, D.C. March 18th, 1864. 4 pages, 8vo.

3. ALS by Sowden to his wife. Menoxey(?) River, 22 August 1864. 3 pages, 8vo. 

4. ALS by Sowden to his mother. Camp Near [Petersburg, Virginia], 28 September 1864. 2 pages, 4to. 

5. Autograph letter by John and William Sowden to their mother. Still Water, Minnesota,  3 September 1865. 6 pages, 8vo. 

6. ALS by Sowden to his mother. Stillwater, [Minnesota], 10 February 1866. 4 pages, 8vo. He writes with news of his growing family: "We have got an addition to our family a baby girl. It was born night before last on Feb. 9th about 1 oclock. She was only sick about an hour but we had a very good Doctor."

7. ALS by Sowden to his siblings and mother. Stillwater [Minnesota], 1 March 1866. 4 pages (lacking portion of second leaf, not affecting text), 8vo. 

8. ALS by Horatio N. Diver to his mother. Stillwater, Min[ne]s[o]ta, 3 n.m. n.y. 2 pages, 8vo. 

9. Autograph letter. Oswego, [New York?], 9 January 1870. 4 pages, 8vo. 

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